The Higher Response of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Angiotensin-II to Human Chorionic Gonadotropin in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

This research investigated the response of vascular active factors, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and angiotensin-II (AT-II) to ovarian stimulation during 24 hours in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). In this clinical trial study, 52 patients with PCOS and 8 control cases were stimulated with human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) on the 4th to 7th day of the patients’ natural or induced menstrual cycles. We measured VEGF and AT-II by radioimmunoassay before the injection (0 hour) and 3, 8, 12, 18 and 24 hours after the stimulation. After ovarian stimulation, there was substantially higher level of VEGF in typical PCOS patients than the other three groups at the 3 hour time point (p<0.05), while there were no significant differences in VEGF at all the other time points among the four groups. As for AT-II, before and at all time points after the ovarian stimulation, it seemed that the AT-II levels in patients’ sera with different phenotypes of PCOS by the Rotterdam criteria were all higher than in the control group although the differences were not statistically significant. The level of AT-II in typical PCOS patients was also significantly higher than the other three groups at the 3 hour time point (p<0.05), while no significant differences at all the other time points among the four groups were observed. The response to the stimulation varied among patients with different phenotypes of PCOS according to the Rotterdam criteria. Serum VEGF and AT-II were possible contributors to an increased risk of developing ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) in patients with typical PCOS during the early follicular phase (3 hours) after ovarian stimulation (Registration Number: NCT02265861).